1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transparent toner for developing an electrostatic latent image, an electrostatic latent image developer, a toner cartridge, a process cartridge, an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
2. Related Art
Methods of visualizing image information via an electrostatic latent image such as by electrophotography are currently utilized in a variety of fields. In electrophotography, an image is formed and visualized via steps of forming an electrostatic charge image on a latent image holding member (photoreceptor) by charging and exposure, developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer containing a toner to form a toner image, transferring the toner image onto a recording medium, and fixing this toner image onto the recording medium.
According to color image formation by color electrophotography that has come into widespread use in recent years, color reproduction is generally performed using toners of four colors including toners of the three colors of yellow, magenta, and cyan, i.e., the subtractive three primary colors, and a black toner.
According to a general color electrophotography method, a document (image information) is first color-separated into yellow, magenta, cyan, and black, and an electrostatic latent image of each color is formed on the surface of a photoreceptor. In this case, the formed electrostatic latent images of the respective colors are developed using developers respectively containing a toner of one of the respective colors to form toner images, and the toner images are transferred to the surface of a recording medium through a transfer process. A series of processes from the formation of the electrostatic latent image to the transfer of the toner image to the surface of the recording medium are successively performed for each color. The toner images of the respective colors are disposed on the surface of the recording medium in such a manner as to correspond to the image information, and then transferred. A color toner image obtained when the toner images of the respective colors are transferred to the surface of the recording medium as described above is fixed as a color image through a fixing process.
In the color image formation, attempts have been made to correct gloss differences in an image surface, control gloss on a transfer paper, or correct image density and the toner adhesion amount using a transparent toner in addition to Y (yellow), M (magenta) C (cyan), and BK (black) toners.